Holt/Smithson Foundation Launches Friends Program

We are very happy to share the launch of the Holt/Smithson Foundation Friends Program, a close community of supporters committed to advancing the creative legacies of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson and ensuring their ideas remain active in the world.

Friends are invited to join an annual small-group trip personally led by the Foundation’s Executive Director, offering a rare opportunity to encounter places central to Holt and Smithson through her specialist knowledge of the artists and their work. In May 2027, our first Friends trip will take us to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, with a specially developed program of visits and events tailored to the group. Future trips will visit Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels in 2028 and Smithson’s Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in the Netherlands in 2029.

Friends provide vital annual support for the Foundation’s research, exhibitions, publications, educational initiatives, and public programs. As a foundation without a cash endowment, this support helps us continue to make knowledge about Holt and Smithson freely accessible to all.

Annual Friends membership is $5,000. To become a Friend click here and with questions about the program, contact Jess Zeglin, Research Assistant, at programs@holtsmithsonfoundation.org.

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson in their New York City loft in Greenwich Village, 1964.
Photograph: Hermann Landshoff
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Archived News

Soft Network Benefit Auction

We are pleased to participate in the Soft Network Benefit Auction, open on Artsy from September 23 until October 7, 2026. The auction brings together works in support of Soft Network and the Artist Foundations and Estate Leaders List (AFELL), an international network for artists and stewards of artists’ estates and legacies. Holt/Smithson Foundation has donated two rare works of art by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson to the auction to help further this goal. 

“Starfire” at Powder Art Foundation Fall Open Day and Utah Museum of Fine Arts Land Art Week

On October 2, from 11 am to 3 pm, Powder Art Foundation will host a Fall Open House at Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah where Nancy Holt’s Starfire (1986) can be experienced. Starfire joined the collection of Powder Art Foundation last year. The sculpture comprises eight fire pits arranged in the configuration of the Big Dipper and the North Star, bringing the sky down to earth.

Portuguese translation of Smithson's "Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction"

We are pleased to share our collaboration with the São Paulo–based Robert Smithson scholar and professor Antônio Ewbank and publisher Editora Ébria, presenting the first Portuguese translation of the text of Robert Smithson's Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction (1970). Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction is a four-part fold-out work created by Smithson for Aspen Magazine No. 8: The Fluxus Issue, guest edited by Dan Graham and designed by George Maciunas.

Nancy Holt in "10 Years LA!"

From May to August 2026, Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers presented 1 0 Years LA!,at their Los Angeles gallery, an exhibition celebrating the gallery's decade-long presence in the city.